Our batch systems guarantee improved plant performance.

WILFRIED THEISSEN,
MD Putzmeister Concrete,
Machines – India
Our batch systems which incorporate latest technologies with open architecture ensure long shelf life and equipped to cater to emerging demands of users.

To what extent mixer technology has evolved compared to the changing trends in concrete mix designs?
We could say that the mixing technology has evolved at the same pace as the mix design trend. With the demand for high strength concrete increasing nowadays which uses, micro-silica, micro-fibres and even steel fibres, mixing technology has adapted itself taking care of efficiently dosing and mixing concrete with these constituents. PM introduced high wear resistance tiles inside the mixer, to considerable improve the lifetime of the wear parts.

Could you brief us on the batch control system?
Putzmeister is using automated PLC based batch control system. The architecture of the software used in our batch control system ensures great reliability, high flexibility and simple adaptation. It comes with a user-friendly interface, which makes it very easy even for a new operator to master and run the bathing plant. The control system has a self -learning capability whereby it ensures high level of accuracy for all the corresponding weighing systems. More over operators are able to choose from numerous recipes pre-fed in the control system software ensuring repeatability of concrete produced as per the mix design.

How it helps the customer get consistent quality of homogenous mix?
Putzmeister batch systems are especially developed by considering prevailing site conditions in India and other developing countries. Our systems are consciously designed to reduce on site hassles and improve machine and human safety. The strong and unique process logic of our PLC program caters to site conditions and user demands from an operator to a chief executive. Our batch systems guarantee improved plant performance by optimizing process time, improving batching accuracy and guaranteeing homogeneous mix, batch after batch through number of innovative ideas and process features.

Our batch systems also ensure long shelf life and are equipped to cater to emerging demands of users. They incorporate latest technologies with open architecture, which makes it easy to adapt to customer’s needs in future. In additions, our systems can optionally offer moisture probe interface, Watt meter interface, mix temperature interface, and silo level interface etc.

Do customers stick to these quality-ensuring accessories while opting for a plant?
It totally depends on the OEM’s as to how they like to offer the plant. However, most OEM’s offer PLC control as standard equipment, accessories like moisture probe, slump meter and calibration systems are often offered as optional items. Putzmeister offers them as standard equipment as we believe that this equipment is necessary for producing quality concrete.

Frankly many customers are not fully aware about its advantages and hence are not using it. In fact not all OEM’s offer these accessories for the simple reason that it adds to cost. So we are making a lot of effort to educate our customers and make them understand that these accessories are necessary in batching plant if they desire to produce quality concrete.

What are the prerequisites to get the near rated output promised by the OEMs?
The rated output of our plant in continuous operation depends upon the recipe of concrete being produced and the mixing time. For a typical 1m³ batching plant having an output capacity of 60m³/h, the recipe of concrete includes 2000 kgs of aggregates / sand, 300 kgs of cement, water to cement ratio as 0.5 and mixing time of 30 second. This will insure the nominal output of 60m3.

The most important factor, which affects the output of the plant, is mixing time. For example, if the mixing time is increased from 30 seconds to 45 seconds keeping all other variables the same, the output will reduce to 48m³/h. Another important factor is the type of concrete being produced and discharged in truck mixer. Often the dry type concrete mix takes longer time to discharge in the truck mixer thereby increasing the total cycle time and hence reduced output.

What are the value added features offered to maximize output?
Putzmeister optional multi-user platform is indeed dynamic and provides restricted software access to sales, dispatch, accounts and quality personnel to manage/observe operations and monitor production from the comfort of their desk, that too by not interrupting production activities at all. This optional feature improves practical productivity to a significant level and thus provides greater value for customer’s investment.
The batch systems can also optionally offer monitoring tools such as e-mailing, weighbridge interface, SMSing, central reporting etc. Industry specific ERP tools help to automate operations and monitor purchase, inventory, dispatch, sales process etc.

How do you ensure unexpected break downs?
Versatile and elaborate reports generated by our control system regarding operation and maintenance of the batching plant gives valuable information regarding the working of the plant, preventive maintenance, lubrication schedule etc. This ensures that the plant does not face unscheduled stoppages and breakdown. The electrical hardware and PLC instrumentation used in our batch systems and control panels are procured from highly reputed multinational companies and thus provide greater reliability by minimizing losses arising due to component breakdowns.

Drive through for truck mixers ensure unnecessary time is not lost in reversing the truck mixers at job-site. The efficient management of available resources and perfect control system procedures further ensures that there are no losses in batch time during continuous operation.

Just a basic knowledge of computers is enough to efficiently operate our batch systems. The systems are designed by adopting “simple to operate easy to learn” design philosophy. Considering the environment, all our plants are equipped with air filters for cement silo, air bags or de-aeration filters for mixers to check harmful dust from escaping.

What is the impact of data driven technologies on the design of concrete batching plants?
IT and data driven technologies have provided pools of information to OEM’s like us. This had helped us to design our machines more efficiently by introducing features which cuts down on energy requirement and reduces the pollutants considerably.

How acute is the challenge of availability of skilled operators?
It is an irony that though more than 1,000 batching plants are sold every year in India, skilled batching plant operators are hard to find. Mostly these plants are run by operators having minimum knowledge about the operation and maintenance of these plants. In order to address these issues, we first ensure that the operator from the customer is present during the commissioning of our batching plant and is given a proper professional training by our staff. In an event that the customer fails to arrange for the qualified operator during commissioning or even after that, we can provide qualified operators to them.

What is the current demand-supply scenario for concrete batching plants?
There is a demand for more than 1000 batching plants per year in India. It can go up to even 1400 batching plants
in a year. More than 65% of these batching plants are project specific installation and are hence preferred to be mobile in nature. The rest are installed by ready-mix concrete suppliers and will be stationary plants. There are some 30 batching plant manufacturers in India who cater to the market demands.

Which are the major vertical that drive the demand for batching plants of various capacities?
Infrastructure, real estate and civic amenities are the key sectors driving the demand for batching plants in India. They account for approximately 90% of the batching plant sales. Real estate alone account for 60% of the batching plant sold in India. In the real estate and civic amenities sector mainly the smaller capacity batching plants like 18m³/h and 30m³/h are used while for the infrastructure projects the bigger capacity plants like 60m³/h and higher are used.

Brief us on the range offered by Putzmeister?
Currently PM is offering 30m³/h batching plant with a 0.5m³ pan mixer and 60m³/h batching plant with a 1m³ twin-shaft mixer. As mentioned above it caters to the need of both the real estate and infrastructure project demands. These capacities of batching plant do not require high investment and are easy to move, for example to new project sites. Being compact and smaller in size, it is also easy to install them at job sites with little available space.

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